One evening in early January 1996, Avatar Adi Da Samraj gathered in His house at the Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary with a group of longtime devotees. He sat and spoke with them all through the night, going well beyond the wintery sunrise. Among the topics discussed were the non-humans and their native capacity for natural Divine Communion which, rightly understood, is perhaps their greatest sacred value and instruction to humans. By the time the sleepy group of gatherers made their way across the Sanctuary in the crisp
early morning, the mists were still clinging to the slopes of Letting Go Mountain and the entire Sanctuary seemed even more alive and Blissfully Contemplative than the day before. Adi Da, in His quiet, powerful voice, full of direct knowledge and wisdom, had more deeply sensitized everyone present that night to the inherent qualities of Divine Contemplation in both the non-humans, and themselves, all as being the "same" at heart.) One evening in early January 1996, Avatar Adi Da Samraj gathered in His house at the Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary with a group of longtime devotees. He sat and spoke with them all through the night, going well beyond the wintery sunrise. Among the topics discussed were the non-humans and their native capacity for natural Divine Communion which, rightly understood, is perhaps their greatest sacred value and instruction to humans. By the time the sleepy group of gatherers made their way across the Sanctuary in the crisp early morning, the mists were still clinging to the slopes of Letting Go Mountain and the entire Sanctuary seemed even more alive and Blissfully Contemplative than the day before. Adi Da, in His quiet, powerful voice, full of direct knowledge and wisdom, had more deeply sensitized everyone present that night to the inherent qualities of Divine Contemplation in both the non-humans, and themselves, all as being the "same" at heart.)

Adi Da Samraj: Most non-human beings, you could observe, are spending a lot of time in Contemplation. Their times of non-Contemplation are associated with some kind of physical necessity. They prefer to be in a situation of not having physical obligation. Very often this is so. Then there are others that may move a lot, even the bees, for instance. They seem to be very busy, and not stopping for Contemplation much, except the queen perhaps. But the hive is a place of exaltation, extraordinary sound is in it, and nectars drunk.

They are in a Contemplative state of exaltation, constantly, while their bodies otherwise appear to be very busy, like fishes, too, and so on. You know? So either it's something like that, some profundity, even though seeming to be very active, or, as in many other cases, animals, or non-humans of whatever kind, pause a lot, sit still a lot. And there's these chameleon guys. Are you all familiar with them? They will spend huge, vast hours in a fixed position without the slightest movement - no blinking. . .

I mean, the animals or the non-humans may look to you like they don't really have much to do, what's the point, you see? They can live a whole lifetime without doing anything that you think is creative especially. They just seem to exist somehow. It doesn't look productive at all. It's extremely non-human. [mild laughter] You think, "What difference does that make? Bump it off, whatever, abuse it." [laughter]

It's not human. It's sub-existing, you know. It's not a person. It's not aware. It's just a thing !

Human beings propagandize themselves to the point where they don't have to be sensitive to where they are or what it's laws are, what's really happening there. Human beings dehumanize one another. They select some group to hate, and "We're the good guys, you're the bad guys" -- they do all this kind of stuff all the time. Well, they do the same thing with the non-humans. You're desensitized to the point where you can treat them like they're just stuff. You know, so what does a chameleon do that makes any difference? Why "chameleon" it then, you know? It doesn't seem like it has any real purpose to the human view often, it seems.

But these are the true "odalisques" (blissful Contemplatives of the Divine), all around you. Look at the trees odalisquing. They handle their business in an elegant and very slow manner. [soft laughter] And they stand there in constant Contemplation, full "conductivity" -- unless you abuse them, or they get interfered with somehow. . .

So what do you think about the non-humans, then, now that we've talked about it some? Right now in the outback in Australia, aborigines, so-called aborigines, are sitting around fires or just sitting out on the ground somewhere. And among the things they look to observe are the non-humans in their movements about, the whole non-human process - the weather, the sky, the stars, everything, observed in a rather Contemplative disposition of openness altogether...